Upgrade or Insanity
by FictionGriffon-07
Summary: On the mission to the wave, Naruto's seal weakened far more than expected. The side of him that grew at each beating, insult and punishment Naruto received. How will he learn to come to terms with his no longer hidden unstableness. Family team 7 that actually work together, Kakashi gets his shit together. Reality slaps Sasuke, Sakura also slaps Sasuke, Naruto slaps himself.


**Full Summary:** On the mission to the wave, Naruto's seal weakened far more than expected. The side of him that grew at each beating, insult and punishment Naruto received. How will he learn to come to terms with his no longer hidden unstableness? Based on Menma.

 **Tags:** Family team 7 that actually work together, Kakashi gets his shit together. Reality slaps Sasuke, Sakura also slaps Sasuke, Naruto slaps himself. Because I made him mildly insane. Whoops.

 **Author Note:** Ah heck. This story was like someone took a shit on my imagination and served it on a silver platter. I'm re-writing the whole thing. Brace yourselves.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"Your chances of escaping my house of mirrors are zero. That is absolute."

The hunter nin's voice echoed through the dome, bouncing off the walls and seeping through the cracks onto the bridge. For almost a second the air seemed to be completely still through the mist. Unmoving, as the world seemed to halt for only a few sparse seconds.

Naruto's chest shuddered as he let out a ragged breath. His muscles burned as he reached a heavy arm up to his chest. Clutching the fabric of his jacket helplessly, desperately applying what little pressure he could muster to his struggling lungs, burying his knuckles into his sternum. His mouth felt dry despite the saliva pooling beneath his bleeding tongue, wedged between his teeth to help muffle the groan of pain.

He had just been hit with a direct blow of senbon, hitting him with so much force he was thrown off balance, hitting the ground with a gruesome thud. His elbows creaked as they bared the brunt of his weight against the stone, his buttocks burning with pain as his tailbone bruised. The senbon stuck out of him as if he was a human pincushion, blood seeping out of each wound and staining little red blotches though his horrid orange jumpsuit. His muscles ached as they ripped and tore. He coughed as his lungs heaved, blood spilling into his mouth and dribbling down his lip.

The world remained at a halt as Sasuke saw Naruto's body hit the ground. He wasn't far from being in the same state and he hated the fear that shot up his spine. Like a bomb had gone off, his ears started to ring, the sound of Naruto's skull hitting the stone becoming deafening. Slowly, his brain registered what he was seeing; his surroundings sped up again, his eyes widened and his fists clenched until his knuckles were painted white.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled out, worry laced in his words before he could stop himself, a moment of irrational panic as he watched his teammate lie unmoving.

Snapping out of his daze, his legs unstuck themselves from their concrete terror as the Uchiha ran over to where Naruto lay.

Naruto groaned and bit back a yell, curling in on himself, his body seeking what little comfort it could in a last-ditch instinctual effort to protect his vital organs. His teeth screeched as he mashed them together and clenched his jaw until it ached.

"Naruto, are you able to get up?" Sasuke kept his voice low, quick to hide his concern under a stoic tone. He dropped to his knees next to his teammate, crouching despite the wince his body made at the jolted movement.

Naruto let out a forced gasp of air in reply, shoving his arm beneath his upper body. Intending to use his forearms to brace his upper body up, he focused on contracting his lungs as much as he could- using his damaged core muscles to lift himself from the cold ground.

Sasuke let his gaze zip around him, scanning their surroundings in a desperate flurry to avoid another surprise attack, "Try not to use any more chakra. That's only going to help him now," his voice wary.

Naruto's weak glare met the back of his teammate's head.

"I know Sasuke, I…Know." Naruto's voice was broken and wobbly as he spoke through clenched teeth, before his arms supporting him gave out and his body hit the ground again, spluttering blood painfully onto the ground, staining the stone.

 _'Argh. We can't go on like this, he's blocking every move we make. I've got to find a way to outmaneuver him.'_ Sasuke thought, his brows furrowed.

With a grunt Sasuke slowly stood again, the beads of sweat stuck to his pores rolling down his limbs. _'My eyes have adjusted to his movements.'_ With a flash of colour in the corner of his eye, Sasuke spun around, the hunter-nin suddenly appearing in one of the mirrors only for a few split seconds, before sending senbon flying towards them at an alarming speed- the simple flick of his wrist all it taking to launch the deadly needles.

"Looking for a counterattack? I'll save you the trouble."

Sauske's whole body twitched as instinctual reaction kicked in, his hand equipped with kunai swiping in front of him, successfully deflecting the gleaming projectiles coming his way. Not bothering to register as to why and how he was able to even see the weapons with such clarity.

 _'What?!'_ The hunter thought in shock as his disbelief left him momentarily stunned. By no means should the genin in front of him could've been able to counter the attack. With his current injuries, he should've been getting slower.

Falling to one knee, Sasuke evened out his breath and turned his head to his teammate still on the ground, unmoving.

"Get up loser!" Sasuke gasped out in frustration.

Naruto's body trembled as he tried once again to get up, letting out a pained groan as his joints creaked and his tendons complained.

 _'I'm aiming at his vital spots now, but I can't seem to get a direct hit.'_ Thought the hunter-nin, continuing to preoccupy the black haired genin with dart throws.

Managing to balance himself on his sore tailbone, Naruto sat and directed an angry sneer in the direction of their opponent. Naruto choked, wiping the blood off his chin with his sleeve.

"I know what we have to do Sasuke, believe it."

The hunter-nin, whose illusion now appeared in all the surrounding mirrors, started to hail the deadly sharp senbon on the pair. _'It's not just luck, he's fighting to protect his friend, that's why he's so determined. But he can't possibly see all the needles coming-'_

Naruto hysterically swung a kunai around with one hand, his dominant arm across his chest in a helpless attempt to protect his heart from becoming further damaged. Sasuke let out a bated breath, not daring to remove himself from his defensive stance. Flinching at the abrupt pain shooting up his hip, he cautiously let his eyes slide down at his leg, now paralyzed by the needles.

 _'-My movements are beyond human speed, and yet…He's tracking them…somehow. Whatever he's doing…I need to stop him- Now.'_ Thought the hunter-nin as he blurred out of sight.

"He disappeared! Where did he go? How can he just, vanish?" Sasuke voiced aloud as panic started to settle, whipping his head around furiously in all possible directions.

"Naruto, you idiot, you better not pass out again, I can't keep protecting you like this!"

Naruto's eyes widened, before narrowing again in anger as he took in the words from his teammate.

"Well then don't! I never…Asked for your…help…argh..." Spoke Naruto before his eyes rolled back, his voice died out as his remaining energy left him.

Snapping his head around to the orange-clad boy just in time to see his body hit the floor, Sasuke felt his muscles constrict painfully.

"You can't revive him. He has reached his limits." Sasuke turned to the direction of the echoed voice, glaring hard at the now singular image of his enemy, the expressionless fake hunter-nin mask taunting him.

In a moment of last effort frustration, Sasuke crouched, swiping up some of the abandoned senbon at his feet, launching them back towards the hunter's image. His teeth clenched harder as the weapons hit the ice mirror blankly, barely marking the surface before falling to the floor disappointingly.

"Impressive. You have excellent moves-" The young Uchiha whipped his head around to look behind him, towards the taunting voice again, just in time to see the flash of steel as the hunter-nin threw more needles at him.

"-Your attacks are very skilful-" Dodging the senbon, Sasuke gasps as he misses them by the skin of his teeth.

"-But you've reached your limits as well."

 ** _— — — — — — — —_**

A high pitched giggle tunnelled down the empty passageways of Naruto's mind. First sounding like a child, it slowly got louder and louder, resonating off the metal pipelines and sewage-like underpasses. The echoes soon turned forceful, angry and out of control, laughter became screeched yells of insanity.

A much louder, deep roaring growl of fury ripped down the halls, drowning out the high pitched wails.

… _ **.Silence you imbecile!**_ A rumbling voice boomed, too loud and several tones too deep for anything remotely human.

Silence crept through the halls as minutes seemed to pass by. Naruto woke with a start; panting hard and sweat drenching him from tip to toe, slicking his clothes to his skin uncomfortably. His confusion riddled glances cascaded down empty halls surrounding him, he noticed he was sitting in what seemed to be a scentless, thick, yellow liquid.

Quickly standing upright as forcefully as he could, he instantly noticed the lack of injuries and pain that he seemed to be covered with when he was last awake.

-When he was on the bridge. Suddenly his memories hit him like a brick wall, he was on the bridge. Trapped in the fake hunter nin's ice dome with Sasuke.

Sasuke.

Frantically, Naruto looked around, his breathing coming out in shallower breaths as he failed to try and stay calm.

 _'Where am I? How did I even get here, where ever 'here' is!? Is Sasuke okay? Is he even alive? Are my team and the bridge builder okay? I need to find them! I need to find them and help them! Now!'_

Snapping out of his thoughts and looking down, he debated how he'd possibly be able to escape the liquid pooling in this tunnel-like place. The yellow goo was thick and would be impossibly hard to run in.

He shook his head, ruffling his messed thoughts off with a physical shake. He slowly tried to step forward, stumbling and frantically waving his arms around balance. It was like someone had stuck his limbs in fresh mud and he was unable to escape the suction holding his feet to the floor. Sneering in frustration with a quirked lip, he tried to gather chakra in his legs.

Only to come to the sudden realisation that he couldn't feel his chakra at all. Normally, he'd take comfort in the barely noticeable hum of energy flowing through his veins- but now, he fell victim to the void of emptiness that encompassed him. He was powerless and it brought forward a surge of nervousness and bone-deep fear, roots embedded into his core.

So caught up in his thoughts, he failed to notice a boy speeding towards him from one of the dark halls.

By the time his steps were registered and Naruto had noticed the boy's presence, it was too late and they collided unexpectedly with a yelp.

"Ugh.." Naruto groaned, feeling himself drop back into the liquid, the sludge surrounding his body with an uncomfortable sensation.

Warily, his eyes opened with a wince, sight striking with crimson red irises staring dead into his sky blue ones. They were big and round in curiosity and wonder but lacked the innocence of a child. The colour burned into him with the hidden desires of bloodthirsty maliciousness.

Naruto blinked and the trance broke, slowly registering their compromising position. Legs bracketed by each other's, chests almost flush as the boy held his upper body over the blond beneath him.

Naruto's breath caught in his chest as he gave a violent shove against the boy's shoulders, pushing the weight off him. Stumbling to his feet with newfound energy, he wobbled around for his sense of gravity whilst spouting apologies.

The boy just continued to stare, studying and analysing Naruto and making him feel similar to a dissected insect beneath a microscope.

Nervousness tugged at the lump in his throat as he noticed the unusual familiarities between the two of them.

The boy had the same unruly spikes styled just like his own, but shaded rusty darker orange with red highlights scattered unorderly. He had paler skin and whiskers marred his face just like like Naruto, but they seem to sit deeper into his flesh, making then more prominent on his pale face. He wore rags for pants that seemed to be falling off his skinny but well-toned frame, scares burned into his milky skin all over his bare chest.

The blond supposed they were around the same age, 12 if his exact height and muscle structure were any indication.

Naruto reached his hand out towards the other boy, noticing that he didn't seem to be getting up out of the water….stuff.

"Sorry about that." Naruto voiced, shooting him the trademark fox grin.

The boy simply stared at the outstretched hand being offered to him before excitement seemed to bloom over his features. He leapt out of the liquid at an alarming speed and took bold a step towards the now startled blond, apparently personal space was a concept he'd never learned.

Naruto stumbled back in surprise when a hand shot up towards his face, gripping his cheek so hard it made him wince.

The peculiar boy gasped and let go as if shocked by the fact Naruto was indeed solid.

He blinked rapidly as if denying the possibility of his eyes deceiving him, his throat bobbing as he swallowed dramatically.

"You're finally back."

* * *

 **How was it? Hated it? Loved it? Oh boy, I guess I'll never know unless you uh...Oh I dunno, review or something crazy.**

I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but don't panic, I will make sure to explain it all in later chapters.

Thank you for reading! I hope that this **re-write** is much better and I hope that his version will make a little more sense. I am currently **re-writing chapter 2** and will post it as soon as I can!


End file.
